So, hey, Amy. I've been concerned about you this week. You know, because you've been feeling a bit anxious in 1950-something.

Uh, yeah, I get the point. Jeesh. Yes, I realize you are VERY concerned with time at the moment. And yes, I'm still working on the time machine so I can get you back to the 21st century. But, for now, let's return to the topic of your mid-century anxiety, shall we?

You went to see a doctor?

He was smoking cigarettes right in front of you?

So you took off after telling him you were late for a video chat?
Hmm, maybe telling him you were late for a home economic class would've been better - you know, where you learn to cook and sew and take care of a husband.

Even your new friends in 1950-something are trying to get you to start smoking?

And Tony, the greaser guy you're dating, smokes too?

​Yes, well, you're not in Kansas any more, kiddo.

​Let's look at some facts about smoking in the 1950s.

Smoking is considered glamorous in mid-century North America when you now exist. Teenagers like you are seeing their favourite actors smoking cigarettes on the big screen, and want to emulate them.
People are smoking in hospitals, in movie theatres, at meetings, at work, in restaurants during meals, in stores, at home, in cars, at parks, at funeral homes, at public swimming pools, in trains, on planes ... EVERYWHERE.

​

In the early 1950s, however, a British physiologist, Sir Richard Doll, has already connected cigarettes smoking to health issues.

And there will be progress in the form of a campaign against smoking.
​

By the 21st century, cigarette smoking rates will be cut in half.

A Ministry of Health nationwide Canadian survey conducted in 2011 will find that 20.6% of the population aged 21 or older are cigarette smokers.

And in 2016, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States will formulate that approximately 15% of U.S. adults ages 18 and older smoke cigarettes.